Breaking Through the Divide
by thelinksthatconnectus
Summary: The lines begin to blur on where Mikasa stands. Sometimes she's standing in a world infested by Titans, and is one of humanity's last hopes. Other times, she's wrapped in tight arms and suspended in crystal, held tightly against the very person that she once thought that she could trust. And that is exactly where Annie wants her to be. Dark!Annie/Mikasa AU
1. Chapter 1

The room was lot only by candles and gas lamps. It had a cold, damp feeling in it, and a shiver ran up Mikasa's spine.

"So this is where she's been?" Mikasa asked. Her eyes surveyed the rest of the room. From what she could make out, it was sparsely furnished save a few tables set out to the side that were covered in books and papers. The ground beneath her feet was hard and empty, and every footstep she took echoed throughout the room.

Hanjii nodded. They had brought a clipboard with them, though they had yet to actually write anything down. Their face was hard. "We haven't gotten through the crystal at all, not a single scratch or small break. Most have already given up on breaking through." They let out a sigh, and ran a hand through their dark hair. "I think that I might be one of them. Even before we knew who the female Titan was, I knew that she had to be smart."

"I'm sorry, Hanjii." Mikasa wrapped her scarf around her tighter, the bright red a stark contrast with the dark room. She also pulled her jacket around her tighter.

"Oh, there's no need to apologize. If anything, you're the hero in this, Mikasa. Were it not for you then we never would have captured Annie in the first place." Hanjii turned and looked to the door. "To be honest, I would rather that we have Annie trapped inside crystal here than out terrorizing humanity. From the little time we knew her, she did a lot of damage." They looked down to their clipboard once more, their eyes moving quickly across it. "Mikasa?"

"Yes?"

"Would you mind if I got going? I hope that I don't seem rude, but there are a lot of things I need to investigate. A certain church for instance." Their eyes darkened. "I brought you here as you asked, though." Their eyes softened. "If you need me, you might need to do a little searching tonight. Tomorrow, though, I should be easier to find."

"I understand." Mikasa met them directly in the eyes. "Best of luck."

"Thank you, as I can use it." With their free hand, they formed a fist. "It should be easier to get answers out of those religious zealots, and I will be damned if I don't get something out of them." Their eyes locked on the crystal. "Someone is going to have to step up and confess." They turned and left.

Mikasa's eyes returned to the crystal. It was the only thing that really seemed to belong in the room; the tables and book's were just after thoughts.

She had heard that they put up guards, but by now had given up. It had been weeks since Mikasa had forced her off the wall and Eren had held her down.

All those weeks and everyone was still scrambling for answers.

"Why did you do it, Annie?" Mikasa's voice was barely above a whisper. "Did you want to prove something? Or was it revenge that you wanted? But then who did you want revenge on? Did something happen to you, something that you needed to get revenge for?"

* * *

Annie had forgotten how to open her eyes. Her eyelids felt as though they were weighted down by bricks.

However, she still knew how to smell.

The regular smell came in, and was speaking in their clear, directive voice. This time, they did not bring the smell of other Titans with them.

And then there was another, the smell of someone that Annie knew even better than the other person.

Mikasa.

It had seemed like such a long time since she had thought that name, though she knew it perfectly well. If it weren't for her then she wouldn't be here at all.

Or maybe, Annie thought. Maybe I just shouldn't have underestimated her.

She couldn't be sure how long she had been trapped inside the crystal. Darkness, she knew, was all around her, so she could not change forms. Beyond that, there was no real sense of time.

The two began to speak, though Annie could only make out half of it. It was something about religion, about getting answers.

Unless someone had declared Annie a goddess (and, sadly, Annie could see it happening), then she had no idea what this conversation had to do with her.

The conversation continued on, Annie only catching bits and pieces of it. For a moment, Mikasa's smell drifted.

"Hanjii" was one word she caught. The pieces finally clicked together; Annie had heard the name before yet never met them. Still, that was the person she constantly smelled.

Eventually, Hanjii's scent faded away until it was out of the room completely. Their scent began to weaken in the crystal - it was hard, and tended to trap the room's smells inside. It faded, only to be replaced by the regular musky, earthy smell of the dark room and the sharp scent of Mikasa.

Mikasa's footsteps echoed through the room and Annie's ears. With each step she took, she got closer and closer to Annie, until her scent was overbearing and threatened to encase her like the crystal had.

You're back, Annie thought.

* * *

I should move, Mikasa thought.

Annie's eyes opened very slowly, at a snail's pace. Still, her eyes opened further and further, showing off two icy blue eyes. Her mouth hung open, showing off teeth that were a little too sharp and a little too long, and a long pink tongue.

Her arm reached forward slowly, a hand beckoning Mikasa move forward.

No, Mikasa thought, I should run.

Still, her feet remained glued to the floor, and her body, though held in a defensive pose, was limp.

Annie moved as though she was suspended in some kind of thick liquid - perhaps something more like glycerin rather than water. Still, Hanjii had sworn that the only thing any of the scientists could detect inside of the crystal itself was Annie.

Her hand movement changed, going from that of beckoning Mikasa forward to reaching forward herself, directly towards Mikasa.

Her heart was beating so fast that she was sure that Annie could hear it.

Her hand reached effortlessly through the crystal, as if it were not so hard that even the most effective of swords and knife shattered on impact the moment that they touched it.

Her mouth had closed, settling into a lazy smile, and her eyes were again half closed.

With an iron grip, she wrapped her hands around Mikasa's scarf. Cold fingers chilled her neck as some reached up under the fabric and wrapped around her throat. Not tight enough to choke, but just enough to where Annie could get a good grip on her.

And then her arm retreated, and Mikasa could feel her feet again moving. Her arms remained limp, no matter how hard she tried to send them energy.

Energy, it seemed, was running out.

Her own eyes were beginning to close.

Annie's other arm was finally moving, wrapping almost protectively around her back and waist.

The crystal was colder than she expected. It felt a bit like a liquid, a bit like air, and nothing like the unbreakable solid cocoon that Hanjii had described.

She could feel her chest, perched up against Annie's own. Her other arm had moved from her neck around her back as well, holding her with steel arms and ice fingers. Their foreheads met, and by then Annie's own eyes were beginning to shut as well. From what little Mikasa could still see of her face, her lazy smile had become a grin, and a twinkle of victory ran through her eyes.

Mikasa's feet slid through the crystal with ease, until there was nothing left for her out there.

Then, her heavy eyes drifted shut and the last of her muscles weakened. Were it not for Annie's strong, cold hold on her, then she did not know how she would have remained upwards.

* * *

"Mikasa!"

"Mikasa!"

"Mikasa!"

The voices shifted, and rose higher and higher. It took Mikasa a moment to realize that they were all from the same person.

For a moment, she blinked rapidly, and took shaky steps with noodle limbs.

"Hanjii?" Her voice was low, and her throat was dry and cracked. "Hanjii, what are you doing here?"

From the corner of her eye, she looked at the crystal. Annie was in the same pose as before, as if she had never moved at all.

"I came back here to grab something; I'd forgot to get it earlier." Their frown deepened. "When I came down, you were looking at Annie so intensely. You didn't seem to be moving at all, your body faced directly towards the crystal, and I had no idea if you knew that I was in the room."

"I'm sorry." Mikasa walked forward towards the door.

"Mikasa, is something wrong?"

"I'm just tired and need some food."

"Alright," Hanjii responded. They stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Mikasa's shoulder. "I got what I needed. Come on, let me help you up."

The two made their way to the door, and from there the outside world. The sun was beginning to set, and night falling. A chill wind ran through the air, and it made Mikasa's legs shake.

"Do you need me to call a doctor?"

Mikasa shook her head. "I just need some soup and to rest."

"Fine. Still, if you aren't any better tomorrow then I will call someone in."

Mikasa nodded. That was fair enough.

Still, she couldn't be sure that a doctor could do much to help with Mikasa's current problem.

* * *

Mikasa's scent moved further and further away from her. In the dark, Annie clung to what little she had left of her. The crystal was all but completely filled with it, though it too was fading.

There's nothing you can do to stop it, some little voice in the back of her mind said.

Annie couldn't be sure if that little voice was really hers.


	2. Chapter 2

"Is something wrong?"

Mikasa stiffened in her chair, pulling her arms towards herself and dropping her still uneaten food back on her plate.

"I'm sorry."

Mikasa turned to Sasha. She truly did look sorry, her eyes wide and mouth set in a deep frown. Her hands were at her side and not her plate.

"You just seemed like you were thinking too hard about somewhere or something else."

Mikasa pushed her plate forward, wincing at the sound of it as her glass plate rubbed against the wooden table. "Look, if you want my food then you can have it. Eat up."

It was a whole plate of good meat, warm, fresh bread, and warm vegetables - carrots and butter covered mashed potatoes in fact. Normally, Mikasa would have been excited to eat such fine food (Hanjii had said that they managed to convince the Military Police to feed them while the Survey Corps was in the area in return for silence on Annie). Now, however, she could not even bring herself to look at the food, let alone actually eat it.

Sasha's frown deepened, and wrinkles began to line her otherwise youthful face. Surprisingly, she pushed it back without eating a bite. "You need it, Mikasa. You haven't touched anything all night."

Mikasa stiffened. "I heard that you just got in here today after facing off against titans. If anyone deserves it, it's you." It took all her energy to sound concerned.

Sasha merely reached across the table, broke the bread into two pieces, and left the larger half on the plate below her.

"I'm worried about you, Mikasa." Sasha took a bite out of her bread. "I don't know what happened, but you seem different now."

Mikasa wanted to speak up, to tell Sasha that the only person that she needed to worry about was herself. However, the look on Sasha's face was genuine. Besides, if Mikasa did tell her to mind her own business, then surely she would only grow more suspicious.

Mikasa's eyes drifted down to her plate. All the food seemed like sand paper.

Familiar eyes fell on her. Eren and Armin were wordless, though she need not even imagine what they thought. She picked up her fork and ate a small bit of mashed potatoes - a mere forkful. A bit of the melted butter ran down her chin and landed on her scarf.

It took far more effort than usual to swallow.

* * *

Just like the food, the rooms that Hanjii had gotten were delightful. Mikasa had once thought that the Yaegers had the softest mattresses in the world, but this put Mikasa's old bed to shame.

It was luxuriously soft; the moment Mikasa had laid down on it, her limbs had relaxed instantly. The sheets were silky and smooth, while still keeping her warm. They were dyed a beautiful blue, one that screamed of wealth. Even the pillows were heavenly, as if clouds had been plucked from the sky and placed on the bed for her.

It needed only one more thing to be the best bed in the world: Mikasa actually being able to sleep.

No matter how heavy her eyelids were, she just ended up closing her eyes and listening to herself toss and turn. Once she grew tired of it, her eyes would open once more. Closed or open, her eyes only saw darkness.

A private room, Mikasa thought. Hanjii went out of their way to get you a private room, and you can't even sleep in it.

She wrapped her arms around her waist, and pulled herself further under the silken blankets, until she was completely under them. At least then she would not have to see the shadows that dashed and danced along the walls.

* * *

Mikasa couldn't even be sure if she was awake. Though the bed was around her and blankets on top of her, cold arms reached up and wrapped around her waist.

It had to be a dream; the body would have to be below her.

Mikasa's eyes remained firmly trapped on the blanket above her, though she had seen pale white hands and arms before they had wrapped around her.

"Mikasa?"

Her heart skipped a beat.

"Mikasa, what's wrong?"

Something cold touched her neck - perhaps lips, perhaps another's skin, perhaps even hair.

"Mikasa, what's wrong?" repeated the voice. The longer that she listened, the more that she recognized it.

"I'm worried about you, Mikasa." The tone wasn't mocking - far from it. Her tone of voice sounded as though it would have belonged to Eren, Armin, or Sasha.

But never Annie.

Annie didn't care or worry about anyone - anyone but herself at least.

The arms around her waist tightened.

* * *

For a moment, Mikasa could only stare wide eyed at the wad of bills in Armin's hands.

"Where did you get that?"

"Huh?" Armin looked up to her. "Oh, this? It's definitely a lot; I counted." His frown deepened. "The Female Titan caused a lot of damage."

As if she didn't know.

"A lot of it has to be paid off." Armin held the bills up. "Hanjii asked me to use this to hold off some people and keep them from getting angry." His eyebrows slanted, and he clutched the bills ever tighter. "There was a Titan inside the walls, risking the lives of thousands, and yet all they worry about is money."

Mikasa nodded.

"Want to come with me?"

Mikasa froze for a moment. Finally, she nodded. There was nothing that she needed to get done at the moment.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned.

"Tired?"

Mikasa nodded.

"Did something happen to you?" Armin's eyes widened.

"You don't need to worry about me." Mikasa's voice lowered. "I just had a hard time sleeping."

Armin nodded, and then motioned for her to follow them.

As they walked, they passed the wall. It was in the distance, but the tall, looming structure was impossible to ignore. It was even harder to try and ignore the Titan, dead as it may have been, that stared at nothing with it's still open eyes.

A shiver ran up Mikasa's spine, and she picked up her pace.


	3. Chapter 3

The whole world was her enemy now, she supposed. At least the whole world save her father, Reiner, and Bertholdt, and she didn't even know if any of them were still alive.

All she had was the crystal.

Yet for all the curse it was, it was so much better to have that wall between her and the outside world. From what little she had learned of Hanjii, she had hypothesized that the scientist surely would have dissected her like an animal were Annie not shielded. That was not even the worse that could possibly happen - there were some who would beat her in the dark streets, let blood spill from her skin until she was nothing but a pile of flesh in a red pool. Others would hang her, tying the noose so hard that it might take her neck and lower body apart. Others would take her head off, and people would cheer as a shining blade was brought down on her neck.

She imagined those scenarios sometimes. As morbid as it was, it was one of the better ways to pass time.

Sometimes Mikasa stood at the front, a line of soldiers sandwiching her on both sides. Their eyes would meet - blue to a cold, unreadable grey. Both mouths would be set in firm lines.

Other times, Mikasa was at the very back, a speck only recognizable by the bright red scarf ever tied around her neck. She would be a blob, a pile of colors, but her stare would always be harder than that of anyone else in the crowd.

The worst times were when Mikasa was the one who raised the axe, or the one tying the noose around Annie's pale neck. Her images of Mikasa pushing her to the ground and trying to crush her like a bug were both nightmares and possibilities.

Annie had seen that cold look in Mikasa's eyes many times before. She had people who depended on her and needed her, and she would do anything to keep them safe.

The whole world was her enemy, yes.

Sometimes it just felt like she was only fighting one.

* * *

Armin moved around the district easily. The stack of bills in her friend's hand dwindled, and never once was a single piece of paper used for either his or Mikasa's personal needs. Her friend had a way of charming the elite, and genuinely comforting those in need. Had his older self seen him, then he surely would have been amazed at who he would become.

Some they saw looked poor, and not too different from those that Mikasa and her friends had grown up beside. The adults had sad, hollow eyes and wrinkled faces - most of their lips were set in either frowns or looks of shock. Though word surely must have spread around by now that the walls were made of Titans, it still must have been a shock.

Mikasa had known it for some time, and it still brought a chill to her spine and sent harsh memories flooding her mind.

All that time, walls had been falling - Titans destroyed by Titans. Titans had been what had been protecting them from Titans.

Titans, Titans, Titans.

(Titans were what she saw when she closed her eyes. Thousands flashed before her eyes, but the scariest was the one who had sat beside her at meals and fought with her during hand to hand combat training.)

Maybe that was how humans had first felt when the Titans had first attacked. Perhaps they had looked to the future with hopes in their eyes, and went to bed dreaming of a supposedly brighter tomorrow.

That future hadn't been reached yet.

What brought her comfort was the grey, cloudy skies. It looked as if it could rain at any time. Though it surely wouldn't wash away the district of its fears and pains, at least it would clean the streets. Besides, rain certainly wasn't Titan weather.

Finally, the last bill was gone, and the two were alone.

"Are we turning back now?" Mikasa asked. It wasn't all the walking that had drained her that day, but dealing with the people. Most idolized her, looking at her as if she and Armin had the answer to everything. Looking over to her friend, she noticed that his own eyes were hollow, and his arms and legs slacked. He had been the one who had done most of the talking.

Armin nodded. "I don't think that there's anything else that we can do here. Hanjii will be pleased to see us again."

Mikasa leaned forward, wrapping her arm around his back like she had when they were children. "Do we just follow our way back?"

Armin nodded. His steps were weak and slow, his feet just barely moving in front of the other.

She tightened her grip on him; she would be damned before she let one of her best friends fall.

* * *

Dinner was a tense, quiet affair. Most noise came from the clinking of metal silverware against glass plates, or the sound of chewing.

Sasha was a lucky girl, Mikasa realized. Her friend was miles away, but she was perhaps the luckiest girl that Mikasa knew. She could get lost in food and escape any hardship; it was what had gotten her through her younger years and through training to join the scouting legion. If she were here, she would be eagerly digging into her meal, wrapped in bliss.

Mikasa had her food, and she could taste it on her tongue, but she could also hear the clinking of glass.

Eren's head was down; his eyes were hard to read, and his mouth was set in a straight line. Armin had barely touched his food. Hanjii wasn't even at the table, and instead was off doing some sort of research. Someone had mentioned what it was using technical terms, most of which she doubted anyone in the room but Armin understood.

The damages caused to the wall and the subsequent work Mikasa faced helping sway civilians to the Survey Corp's side was understandable. Armin surely had expected the same thing, as he had shown no actual sign of regretting taking the job. Though it had exhausted both of them, it was nothing compared to how tired they were afer fighting Titans.

But not one had expected for the Titans to make them tense, leaving everyone serious. At least when they were training there had always been a joke or story to tell. Now, it seemed as if everyone were caught inside some sort of web.

No, not a web - a cold, hard crystal, and no one could break through it.

It was hard to swallow her food that night, no matter how tiny she cut it up or how much water she drank with it.


End file.
